EUROPEAN REVIEW

ISSUE 40 - Page 2

 ‘RECONCILIATION OF WORK, PRIVATE AND FAMILY LIFE’ is the term used by the EU as a catch-all for subjects usually coming under the heading of work-life balance in the UK. As part of a wider consideration of the ageing of the European population, the demographic ‘time-bomb’, the EU Commission asked employers and trade unions if they thought changes were needed to legislation in this area. Most organisations replying were in favour of some sort of action though they differed on the exact form that this should take. The Commission concluded that new laws were necessary and, as they were bound to do by EU treaty provisions, launched  a second round of consultations to fill in the details. They asked  how child care and services for the disabled and elderly could  be promoted and increased, good practice be publicised, men persuaded to take up the benefits already available to them and work flexibility further developed and promoted.
Now the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and Business Europe, for the employers, have responded. At this stage of the process the Commission is encouraging the social partners to agree a deal which takes the place of legislation, as they did recently on harassment at work, but it seems that their positions are too far apart to make this likely. Business Europe acknowledges ‘that reconciliation of work, private and family life is an important issue in the current context of insufficient labour market participation of women and demographic ageing’ but prefers action at ‘national, sectoral, regional and/or company levels’ rather than ‘a one-size-fits-all regulatory approach from the EU’. The ETUC, on the other hand, go along with many of the legislative changes that the Commission envisages and would go further on topics such as educational leave which they have not taken up. The strengthening of maternity leave provision, new rights to paternity and adoption leave, assigning some parental leave to fathers and paying them to take it are all Commission suggestions which find favour with the unions. The employers, however are ‘extremely concerned that the Commission seems to pre-suppose that new challenges are best met by legislation at EU level’.
There is one possible avenue that may lead to an deal: ETUC and Business Europe have agreed to jointly assess the progress of the EU gender equality framework. The unions intend to take up the issues of parental leave, flexible working and child care as part of ths process.

AFTER DEVASTATING NEWS OF REDUNDANCIES for General Motors workers in Antwerp, strikes and negotiations resulted in a settlement which was generally welcomed by unions. When the company announced, in April, that the new ‘Astra’ model would not be produced at the Belgian factory a series of protest actions, including a two-week strike, led to a reduction in the number of redundancies as well as improved terms for those laid off. Unusually, 400 temporary employees will receive redundancy payments while permanent workers over 50 can take early retirement on up to 89% of their final wage. Younger volunteers qualify for a severance payment up to a maximum of €144,000, if they have 25 years service. A total of 2,200 will leave the plant. Other employers and some politicians called the deal ‘immoral’ and said that it sent the ‘wrong signal’ as regards a ‘Generation Pact’.
ANOTHER SERIES OF PROTESTS HAS LED to a deal in Spain between unions, local government and the American multi-national auto parts manufacturer Delphi. After announcing the closure of its Cadiz factory a rolling campaign of strikes and protest marches strengthened the hand of unions so that Delphi agreed to fund redundancy pay to the tune of €120 million (a maximum of €200,000 per worker), to hand over the factory, its machinery and land (valued at €160 million) and to retain €200 million of debt in the company. As the UGT union and the Andalusia regional government hailed the agreement as showing that company relocation had a cost, it was reported that Delphi were to open a new factory in Tangier, Morocco some 60 miles away.
TROUBLED GERMAN CERAMICS FIRM Villeroy and Boch are facing further difficult negotiations with trade unions in Luxembourg after two rounds of lay-offs in 2003 and 2006. After suggesting that they re-employ some former workers on temporary contracts, they rejected union demands that the re-recruits should receive wage bonuses.  For their part the LGGB union federation determined not to be as conciliatory as in the past when, in a desire to find reasonable solutions, it feels it has taken responsibility for the mistakes of an intransigent management. After six months of talks there has merely been an interim agreement to extend the previous, expired deal until the end of this year.